Sudden data loss angers customer

A frustrated customer of the local telecommunication and internet provider is crying foul at what he describes as “unexpected chewing of data” from his monthly plan.

Rod Henderson said that he was puzzled with the sudden increase in his internet usage and charges and has questioned the security of the system used by Bluesky.

However Bluesky’s manager commercial Lahaina Kiely said they have not had any issues with sudden data consumption.

Henderson said he was not the lone victim of the sudden data consumption. He said there were others who were experiencing similar problem.

“I had an $89 plan and that chewed up in about 10 days. Before it used to last 20-25 days. I went to ask Bluesky what was happening, so they gave me a special printout which showed my data usage,” he said.

“It showed most of my data was used up in iCloud but I don’t have any Apple products. There were also things like Windows 10 downloading and Google Hangout, which I have no idea of.

“I changed my password, but still lost the data. I don’t know how it’s happening. It’s not just me, it’s quite widespread and it is a serious problem.”

Henderson said he knows an expat, who had been living on the island for 30 years, had accumulated about $700 in additional internet charges over the past few months.

“My question is where is all this data going to? What is the remedy to such a situation? I don’t think most of the usage shown in the printout from the Bluesky is mine, so who is using this data?

“I believe it’s a local problem and the system is faulty. I believe we are all vulnerable.”

Bluesky’s Kiely said they needed time to gauge internet usage and history to determine if Henderson’s password was compromised which could have caused the additional usage.

“I'm just working with the team to see if there was any other cloud based usage from previous months. We have since changed the Wi-Fi password when customer brought the query to us and it appears the cloud-based usage has stopped,” she said.

“Our customers contact us if there is high usage and we run protocol reports to show how usage is being consumed from that particular modem and it indicates whether it is downloads, Facebook, Viber, Cloud or Apple services, Google updates ...

“Sometimes high usage is attributed to a virus attack or even misuse by others who are aware of the password. In cases like these, we recommend a change of password to protect the account owner. If it is a virus attack and if confirmed by an IT person, we offer a one off credit for the data consumed in those cases.”

Kiely said the best forms of protection for their customers was to change the Wi-Fi password on a regular basis, be aware of who they have given the password to, disable any auto-updates, monitor usage on a regular basis, be aware of who is doing what in the household (eg: children on Facebook/YouTube and so forth) and take note of anyone using online gaming, Xbox.